Alpine Plants of Western Himalaya

Western Himalaya is the reservoir of numerous natural resources, of which the diverse vegetation is predominant. It has attracted the attention of several botanists particularly in the context of plant exploration since times immemorial. Though the palynological and taxonomical investigations are receiving due attention in India but still there is lack of comprehensive account of pollen flora on regional basis and thus far, from Western Himalaya, palyno-taxonomical studies are only few, particularly from interesting alpine environments. The challenging areas of alpine zones above timberlines constitute quite distinct vegetational cover in context to that of tropical and temperate zones. Probably the climatic conditions met in these zones exert the selection pressure on the plants, which allow the persistance and perpetuation of a few types of phenotypes in these environments. The assemblage of such illustrated catalogues of the major pollen morphotypes will serve as an adjunct to the Indian pollen flora and recent vegetational wealth. To begin with the study of such unique environments, the work embodies, a survey of the characteristic angiospermic plants in alpine zones and their palynotaxonomical analysis covering 316 species of flowering plants, representing 163 genera and 47 families. This book is intended to highlight the essential ideas of palynotaxonomy of alpine plants and is informative one. Particularly it will be helpful for the researchers and scientists in various aspects of vegetational study, taxonomy, aerobiology, palaeobotany, palaeoenvironment and pollination biology of the alpine plants.